Friday, February 19, 2010

In a post last week, Professor Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, declared that his thesis that the Israeli lobby in the US played a key role in the decision to invade Iraq has now been confirmed.

Here’s why: ''I hope readers will forgive me if I indulge today in a bit of self-promotion, or more precisely, self-defence. This week, yet another piece of evidence surfaced that suggests we were right all along … In his testimony to the Iraq war commission in the UK, former prime minister Tony Blair offered the following account of his discussions with Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. Blair reveals that concerns about Israel were part of the equation and that Israel officials were involved in those discussions.''
Yet, a close reading of what Blair actually said (''the Israel issue was a big, big issue at the time'') reveals that he was referring to Israel’s actions in the West Bank during Operation Defensive Shield, not to the decision to invade Iraq.
Two weeks ago, Walt argued that if the US attacks Iran it will not be doing so independently - it would be because of the Israel lobby and its backers, including neoconservative newspaper columnists: ''If the United States does launch an attack, it will be doing so in part on Israel’s behalf, and the lobby would bear significant responsibility for having pushed this dangerous policy.''
In The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, Walt and his co-author John Mearsheimer, wrote that American politicians are so fearful of ''The Lobby'' that they cannot vote according to their conscience. Other assertions are that the US invaded Iraq because of Israel and a cabal of mostly Jewish, neoconservative intellectuals who coerced the administration into the war: ''Within the US, the main driving force behind the war was a small band of neoconservatives, many with ties to the Likkud.''
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy has been labelled the modern Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The International Jew. White supremacist David Duke has applauded it; The Holocaust denying Institute for Historical Review has published it on its site; Hamas, the PLO, Iran’s press service, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera have been giving the paper heavy airing.
The book argues that US support for the Jewish state has endangered American domestic security, leading to terrorism and hatred against the American nation. Why has the most powerful nation in the world been willing to neglect its own security for the sake of another state? Because of the all-powerful, nefarious Israel lobby, referred to ominously as ''The Lobby’’ (their capitalisation), comprised of American Jews who ''make a significant effort … to bend US foreign policy so that it advances Israel’s interests.'' The book argues that the ''unmatched power'' of the Israel lobby has hijacked American foreign policy, noting that the American-Israel Public Affairs committee ''is a de-facto agent of foreign government and has a stranglehold on the US congress''.
According to the authors, ''The Lobby'' is everywhere, controlling the media and academic publications and silencing debate on Israel, although they fail to explain the rampant and pervasive anti-Israel sentiment spreading on almost every campus and permeating global newspapers. The book seeks to explain most of America’s misfortunes in the world through a shadowy, sinister Israel lobby. This is quintessential conspiracy theory, combining ''blame-the-Jew'' with antiquated ''Jews seek world domination'' myths. Although AIPAC is singled out as a lobby with vast tentacles of damaging influence reaching across all sectors of government, other Jewish bodies are roped into the mix.
The allegations that American Jews, and by extensions other Diaspora Jews, have a double loyalty, are subversive, even treasonous, and are working harmfully for another country is an alarming imputation to make. To question the loyalty of Jews who are devoted to America, or Australia or any other country, and suspect them of disloyalty is wrong and unfair. History tells us that in times of national predicaments and crisis, Jews have frequently been accused of such betrayal.
The book is overflowing with factual errors that even Noam Chomsky, no supporter of Israel, ridiculed the work, saying the authors, ''have a highly selective use of evidence (and much of the evidence is assertion)''. Christopher Hitchens mocked the ''over-fondness for Jewish name dropping''. Abe Foxman, in The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control explains the danger of such myths being promoted and demolishes the authors’ contentions.
The book’s core formulation - powerful Jews behind the scenes - is the staple of the radical fringe. But to have such charges aired with a tag of academic respectability in a style affiliated with serious, objective scholarship and to have them enter mainstream discourse is alarming. If Chicago and Harvard intellectuals accept these absurd convictions and beliefs, anyone may.
Mearsheimer opposed the Iraq War, believing it would provide Israel with the chance of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. In December 2004, he offered diametrically different opinions to that of his book, stating that the Americans went to the Iraq war in good faith, believing they would find weapons of mass destruction, fearing that Saddam Hussein could become a serious threat to the US and believing in the power of democracy - that is, rather than acting in the interests of Israel. How does one explain such contradictions?
As Senator Moynihan once said, ''You have right to your own opinions, but not to your own facts.''

Dvir Abramovich is the Jan Randa Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies and director of the Centre for Jewish History and Culture at The University of Melbourne. He is editor of the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies and president of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies. He is co-editor of the book Testifying to the Holocaust, published in 2008.

Comments

44 comments so far

I think you'll find if you look hard enough that Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz were in fact front and centre at the Pentagon when the decision to invent the excuse of WMD's and link Saddam Hussein's Iraq with Al Quaeda and pin blame for the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York on him, thereby giving a perfect excuse for war and as it was termed at the time, regime change. Regime change was at the time Israel's policy. Both these men are strident Zionists. So, with the benefit of a hindsight and all that has come to light since the Iraq war we can make our own minds up about whether or not there was divided loyalty on the part of these pivotal players Perle and Wolfowitz. Go figure!

Moradchai Vanunu | GC - February 18, 2010, 9:32AM

OK we get it - only Jews may acknowledge the existence of the Israel Lobby. Apologies for contemplating the issue.

USS Liberty - February 18, 2010, 10:51AM

Take a step back and see the wood for the trees, You Dvir, ARE the Israel Lobby. You ARE a part of this lobby that you deny is everywhere. The whole point of this blog is to play the victim thereby justifying the increasingly brutal, illegal, occupation and usurpation of Palestine. The charge of anti-semitism no longer holds water in the face of Israeli hubris.

Rhett Orric | GC - February 18, 2010, 11:00AM

Well, of course there is an Israel Lobby, just as there are lobbies for everything from the environment to gay rights to underwater basket weaving. However, Dvir is correct to point out that allegations of a disproportionate amount of "influence" by the Israel Lobby is laughable - and that it is an anti-Israeli bias to think otherwise.

Where he is wrong is to link an anti-Israeli bias to an anti-Semitic bias. Although I deplore the way many posters here at the Age link the two, they are not the same. Not everything Jewish is a cause to attack Israel; and definately not anything Israeli is a casue to attack Jews.

Sisu - February 18, 2010, 11:10AM

Oh dear, you need to read Bob Drogon's "Curveball", senate reports and anything other than the excrable Abe Foxman and you will note that all the phoney evidence about WMD was supplied directly by Israel and the lobby in the US.

Marilyn - February 18, 2010, 11:58AM

Dvir, of course there is a israel lobby, as some one mention you are part of it. Look at the way Ahmadinejad was misquoted in his interview where he referred to "wiping israel from the map", he was actually referring to a physical map. The story was twisted by people like you Dvir. If you listen to the whole interview and not the clever editing, he is only referring to the fact that he doesn't recognize the country of israel. He made no mention of killing all the jews, but the story was twisted until all we hear is "wiping israel off the map" as if holocaust (TM) number 2 is on the way.

Dave - February 18, 2010, 11:58AM

Dvir, other commentators here to your article correctly point out that one should not confuse anti-Israeli sentiment with anti-semetic sentiment. To do so prevents a rational discussion about the role of Israel in middle east politics.

The difference between the work of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer and your artciles on this web site is that they are credible academics, and you are not.

Arkady Rabinowitz | Sydney - February 18, 2010, 1:41PM

Of course there is a Jewish Lobby.. anyone else notice the influx of holocaust films that hit the screens around the same time israel was invading lebanon and palistine? The hollywood holocaust movie scene is definitely pro-Israeli propaganda

Asa | Bondi - February 18, 2010, 2:36PM

That's right, Dvir, there's no Israeli Lobby, just like there's no Mossad and no Israeli nuclear weapons of mass destruction, right?

Max Gross | Yarra Ranges - February 18, 2010, 2:38PM

Dvir, you are beginning to discuss some worthwhile topics instead of just whinging! Of course there is an Israel lobby, but to assume they control the western world is hubris of the highest order by these people. But you need propaganda to win the hearts and minds..... *sigh*

vanessa - February 18, 2010, 2:40PM

It should not come as a surprise that Jews' ears prick up if they think they can hear these old tunes hammered out once more. Our own virulently anti-Semitic blog poster Marilyn ... and fellow bigots such as "Arkady" and "Max" help perpetuate this toxic myth.

The naive assumption at work here is that the American dog has no interests of its own, leaving it free to be wagged by the pro-Israel tail. It's a convenient view, casting the great superpower as a hapless, and essentially innocent, victim. But guess what: the US emphatically does have its own strategic interests - oil chief among them - and it guards them fiercely. Support for Israel as a loyal, dependable ally - ready to take on Arab and other forces that might pose a threat to those interests - has served America's purposes well. That's why the US acts the way it does, not because Aipac tells it to.

Perhaps the most powerful example - if only because so many believe the reverse to be true - is the Iraq war. Plenty of Mearsheimer-Walt followers reckon it was the "Lobby" wot done it: it was Israel that pushed for war. But as Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, and others have explained, Israel's leaders in fact repeatedly warned against an attack on Saddam, fearing it would distract from, and embolden, what it regarded as the real threat, namely Iran. As it happened, they were right.

Josh | Melbourne - February 18, 2010, 6:23PM

I reckon Sisu has pretty well nailed it.

However, an effective lobby is not some well-financed, shadowy pressure group, it's the right person in the right place at the right time. If the current Middle East situation is anything to go by, any lobby that engineered it really needs to get its act together- because this is just one dirty great mess and likely to get dirtier and messier

David | Leongatha - February 19, 2010, 8:01AM

Iran is a threat to the entire world not just israel even though it decided to make israel its number one target. If the USA is dumb enough, or maybe brave enough, to attack iran, believe you me it will not be because of a lobby group of Jews advocating for Israel. It will be because the nobel prize winner President realises its time to avoid a nuclear war.

Bonita | Rowston, - February 18, 2010, 11:54PM

What a slam dunk! Your logic and solid argument tear the professor's arguments to shred. What do the Jews and Israelis have to do for the world and Christian folks like myself to like them?

Jamie | Australia - February 18, 2010, 11:47PM

I have no doubt that the Israeli lobby had a hand in pushing the American administration to attack Iraq. But I'm not sure Israel was crazy about the idea. I read somewhere that in fact the Israeli government of the time told the Americans that an invasion would have catastophic implications for the region. What a shame uncle sam went his own way and created another Vietnam.

Sam | Hurtsville, NSW - February 18, 2010, 11:42PM

I find it hysterical that eminent scholars would buy into hackneyed conspiracy theories that have been so discredited they are not even funny. This blog is becoming a must read for me, so keep churning them my good Dr.

Hayden | WA - February 18, 2010, 11:38PM

That this kind of rubbish was published in the London Review of Books says plenty about the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish feeling that dominates the intellectual atmosphere in England and around the world.

Jaxon | Tasmania - February 18, 2010, 9:28PM

Actually, i could believe that if you have a powerful team of influential policy makers and political operatives, you could convince an administration already leaning for an invasion to go the extra step. But that's where it stops.All the other claims the professors make don't sound true, and come across as just unbelievable.

Carmen | NSW - February 18, 2010, 9:24PM

I can't believe anyone would buy the garbage that one group of people, and I don't care if it's the pro-lifers or the gun lovers, can make any government invade another country. I mean, I've heard a lot of things, but this one takes the cake.

EddieK | Oakland - February 18, 2010, 9:20PM

Hey guys if we try hard enough we can pin the JFK assassination on the Israeli lobby.

Natalie | Melbourne - February 18, 2010, 9:17PM

Bonita, going to war against Iran would only start a nuclear war. It's the worst possible option. By a long way.

Good blog. Two comments; One, every group lobbies. It's just the way it is.

Two, quoting the morally and intellectually bankrupt Christopher Hitchens is IMO not such a great move. Other than that, good blog.

Dan - February 19, 2010, 9:35AM

As a university student i studied the protocols of the elders of Zion which was a forgery by the Russian police. As students we saw through the crap that it was, and the nonsensical nature of this document.

Daniella - February 19, 2010, 9:59AM

The invasion of Iraq wasn't about Israel, or a lobby, or about liberating the Iraqi people. It wasn't even about George Bush finishing his father's unfinished work. It was about big oil companies wanting a share of the spoils and wanting to make sure oil suppy wasn't affected.

Leroy | Victoria - February 19, 2010, 10:05AM

I hate to say it, but on this one you're totally right mate. I don't buy any theory that looks for what I call the lone gun theory. What I mean is that the Israeli lobby theory looks to paint the lobby as so powerful so as to push a sovreign nation like America into war. Can't happen. There wer probably a hundred different reasons and factors that led Bush to declare war. Sorry everybody, but this time you can't lay it at the feet of the Jews.

Benny | QLD - February 19, 2010, 10:10AM

I had never heard of the two gentleman you refer to Dr Abramovich, but I'm grateful for bringing them to my attention. I am truly appaled by this report, and the damage it seeks to inflict on the Jewish people. My grandfather was Jewish, and he would often recount the antisemitism he encountered first hand as a boy. All good people, he said, must be judged by how they treat those who are different and are in the minority. We should all fight with all our might and soul against incitment directed at the Jews.

Freya - February 19, 2010, 10:44AM

The Israelis have been stirring the entire world to attack Iran because they want to be the only nation in the arab middle east to have nuclear bombs. Iran has never attacked israel, not in the first gulf conflict and not in any other war. I don't think Israel has to worry, and besides, it has the fourth strongest army in the world.

Sonny | Spain - February 19, 2010, 10:38AM

Max: you refer to Israel's supposed arsenal of mass weapons. Perhaps you are correct in your assertion, but Israel has never been the aggressor in any war, and has never exercised the option of using wmd's. This tiny country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, is a miracle that we should all applaud. It is truly a shame that the Arab world has chosen to seek to destroy it.

Jurgen | WA - February 19, 2010, 10:27AM

Maybe you folks down under don't have time to read 15000 word books but I did and let me tell ya, the professors have a point. AIPAC, or the lobby, have a lot of juice and connections. they know exactly what buttons to push. That's why the Israelis don't like Obama, coz the man says it like it is and takes orders from no one.

Santiago M | New York - February 19, 2010, 10:22AM

Sure the lobby exists, just watch what happens the moment you try and criticize Israel. Not good.

Seth | Lileah,Tasmania - February 19, 2010, 11:42AM

Asa, i found it really offensive and shameful for you to say that Holocaust films is pro-israeli propaganda. The holocaust happened before israel was established; it's a fact of history. For you to use it for political purposes is unfair and disrespectful to the memory of the victims and their families.

Katja | Victoria - February 19, 2010, 11:46AM

While I agree that pro-Israel lobbyists did not push the Bush administration into the invasion, the main architects of the invasion did include the security and interests of Israel as one of their reasons. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perl and Bolton, with others, wrote an open letter to Clinton in early 1998 recommending he invade Iraq and "remove" Sadaam's regime. You can read the full letter at http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm.

I did read "The Israel Lobby" while I was living in the US. The authors took pains to emphasise that there was no conspiracy and that there is nothing inherently wrong with pro-Israel lobbying. Their main concern was when this lobbying went against US interests.

My own experience in living there was that there are a large number of independent pro-Israel organisations, from grassroots campaigns up to AIPAC, active at ensuring support for Israel remained high in government, media and universities. I had no real problem with that, but I was appalled at the vehement stifling of any opposing view. It prevented an open debate and most Americans have no idea of the suffering of the Palestinians, many actually believing that they had migrated to the West Bank from Jordan after 1948!

bikegeek | Terrigal - February 19, 2010, 11:49AM

I'm sorry - but what? What in hell are all these comments talking about? What Israeli lobby? Who says you're criticised for 'talking about Israel'? I'm a university student and basically all I see in terms of Israel is rampant unlimited criticism.

University students (supposedly the new intelligentsia) are so far left and so rabidly anti-Israel that they will say anything. It's just utter crap; antisemitism has somehow become acceptable again. It was especially bad when i was at UWS, but come on. How does the 'Israeli lobby' force anyone to do anything? It's just the stupidest idea ever. It's like, if you stop thinking, and start talking about the wildest, dumbest crap you possibly can, you'd start believing what everyone says criticising Israel.

That's what is just so confusing - all these comments are about some all powerful Israeli lobby, and it just doesn't make any sense; it's as if anyone with Jewish name that works for any government is 'pulling the strings'. What's even more strange is that it used to be the mark of the extreme right wing that were antisemitic and now it appears to be the extreme left. Guess the extreme left and extreme right aren't that different after all.

Tom | Sydney - February 19, 2010, 12:03PM

Bikegeek, you would have to live on another planet not to hear, read or watch about the suffering of the Palestinians. What about the suffering of the Israelis? But I agree with you, there is not open debate, we only get to hear from the one side, the Palestinian side.

Evelin - February 19, 2010, 1:00PM

If anything, most public opinion in Israel was against the war because they knew who would end up getting the blame for it. However, the Israeli lobby in America, is primarily composed of *Americans* and there is no doubt that they played a significant role in pushing for the war - it's not necessarily to serve Israel's interests but their own. An antisemitic backlash would suit them just fine - more grist for the propaganda mill and a population boost for Israel .... it worked for them last time.

Miriam | Sydney - February 19, 2010, 1:09PM

Miriam are you seriously saying that the so named lobby wanted to promote or provoke antisemitism? If you are, then you have no idea how twisted this sounds. No Jewish person wants to unlease hatred and violence against Jews which is what antisemitism amounts to. There is no purpose served by people getting assaulted. If you have a chance to do so, please post again and apologize.

Thomas | St Kilda - February 19, 2010, 1:33PM

What if in 1948 the state of Israel was not created smack bang in the Middle East in the middle of Muslim communities?

What if those early proposals for a Jewish homeland in Madagascar or, as a certain Theodor Herzl contemplated, Uganda, had been acted upon instead? Where would the world be today?

No PLO?

No Hezbollah?

No Hamas?

No Al Qaeda?!

No 9/11?!!

No U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq?!!!

And that's just for starters, right folks?

Max Gross | Yarra Ranges - February 19, 2010, 2:58PM

Readers of this blog may be interested in this -
Professor Petras is the author of numerous books on state power and the nature of globalization in the context of the US and Latin America, and most recently in the Middle East. His latest book, published in 2006, is titled The Power of Israel in the United States.

" I would argue that the pro-Israel lobby, the Zionist Lobby, is the dominant factor in shaping US policy in the Middle East, particularly in the most recent period. One has to look at this beyond AIPAC. , we have to look at a whole string of pro-Zionist think tanks from the American Enterprise Institute on down, we have to look at a whole power configuration, which not only involves AIPAC, but also the President of the Major American Jewish Organizations, which number 52. We have to look at individuals occupying crucial positions in the government, as we had recently with Elliott Abrams and Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and others. We have to look at the army of op-ed writers who have access to the major newspapers. We have to look at the super-rich contributors to the Democratic Party, media moguls, etc. this, together with the leverage in Congress and in the Executive, is the decisive factor in shaping US foreign policy in the Middle East. And I want to emphasize that.
http://dissidentvoice.org/Apr07/Borer-Petras-Finkelstein17.htm

Ruth - February 19, 2010, 3:14PM

Haha you are full of it Mr Abramovich as stated by an earlier post on this blog , "you are the Israel Lobby" . What a joke , i truly wonder for how much longer zionists can get away with the outrageous lies that you tell oh thats right its another "conspiracy theory" that the Jews/Zionists control the western media but hang on a second they do as per an article in the LA Times from December 19, 2008 by Joel Stein a Zionist Jew who says I quote "I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood."

So Mr Abramovich please stop lying as you are to easy to expose the Jewish/Zionist Lobby is all powerful because it has a huge amount of control over the western media which enables you and your fellow followers of the Judaic Religion to get away with your lies like "poor us , we are the victims of anti-semitism" lol "poor Israel surrounded by enemies" or "We [Israel] do not have thermonuclear weapons of mass destruction" hahaha . I am sick to death of these outrageous lies told by YOU the jewish/Zionist controlled media and Israel.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19

acking buckets of that. Even Jewish members of the House of Commons such as Sir Gerald Kaufman, have talked of the power of the Israel lobby in both the US and the UK. There have been many instances in the US of members of Congress who have tried to take an even handed stance on the Palestine issue only to have the Jewish lobby campaign against them for re-election and to have them beaten. Now, there are very few members of the US Congress prepared to take on the Lobby. You only have to look at the massive funding provided to sustain an otherwise nonviable Israeli state, with no apparent benefit, and great cost, to US national security, to see that it is an extraordinary case of the tail wagging the dog.

Lesm | Balmain - February 19, 2010, 4:41PM

@Jurgen | WA - February 19, 2010, 10:27AM: One of the most grotesque aspects of Israel's expansionist policies is the use of the Holocaust as some sort of excuse. It's like Bush and Cheney using the dead of 9/11 as an excuse to destroy Iraq and blow up poor, helpless Afghans.

Max Gross | Yarra Ranges - February 19, 2010, 5:12PM

Not to quote the Jewish Lobby but this is biased tripe.

Gaza in that case was really a quite demonstration and Jerusalem has fair planning laws and Israel isn't a apartheid state
A Israeli isn't Arab really isn't a Palestine.
If I were to believe this I would believe that Palestine never existed and Israel was created by God personally and not the Allies after the war.
Or that Hamas and other Arab countries haven't guaranteed peace with Israel if they go back to the 1967 borders.
Or the wall isn't about stealing more land.
This article was about as accurate as Inglorious Basterds.
And does more damage to the Jewish people than good.
Hopefully the wonderful Jewish people out there who helped bring down apartheid can teach the Israelis to do the same.
Israel needs to be part of the answer not the problem.
And stop treating the rest of the world with contempt.
The Kiwis can tell us all about Mossad forging passports.They get caught and then do it again.
We are not all stupid.

BMP | Sydney - February 19, 2010, 5:57PM

Jurgen / WA I saw your comment.

Give your house and land back to the Aborginals. They have a direct link to the land and country. Not something created on the ashes and brutality of people kicked out of their homes. Jews have lived with Muslims throughout the ages but it wasn't the Muslims who killed them it was a mad European.

BMP | Sydney - February 19, 2010, 6:10PM

Evelin, it was another planet I was living in - called the USA :-). The Palestinian story certainly gets a hearing here in Oz but not over there. From Fox on the right through to MSNBC on the left, the media are pro-Israeli, or at best carefully avoid being seen as criticising Israeli actions. AIPAC conventions draw a large percentage of congress. There is more debate in universities, but faculty risk losing their jobs if they show any anti-Israel bias (pro-Israel is fine).

That being said, I saw no evidence of some sort of conspiracy, but just a large number of independent pro-Israel activist organisations working very effectively to stifle debate and ensure the US support Israel even when their policies such as the illegal settlements went against US interests. These groups cut across the entire spectrum on US society with Christian and non-denominational membership as well as Jewish. In fact, the most active people working against these groups is J Street, a Jewish organisation.

bikegeek | terrigal - February 19, 2010, 7:14PM

Dvir Abramovich can’t see a tree in a forest! They magnify a few tragic incidents of Europe and deny all other tragic inducements around the world!! People of Dvir’s nature have been using ‘holocaust’ to justify the most painful and slow motion HOLOCASUT in the longest running concentration camps located inside occupied Palestine with a stamp of infinity. This type of hypocrisy and double standard is sickening.